Brett Kavanaugh’s Nomination Further Threatens the Environment

Given Donald Trump’s consistent deference to corporate polluters over public health and environmental protection, it should come as no surprise his new nominee for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, has a long record of opposing common-sense regulations that would keep people safer and healthier, while limiting the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency to do its job. Kavanaugh is an unapologetic right-wing ideologue, and his confirmation would threaten much of what everyday Americans expect from a fair and just government. We will do all we can to fight his nomination.

Here are some of the reasons we oppose the nomination of Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court:

In a 2014 ruling over an EPA rule on toxic mercury from power plants, Kavanaugh wrote in a dissent that EPA had acted wrongly in not weighing costs when it first decided to write a regulation. A year later, a 5-4 Supreme Court propelled Kavanaugh’s reasoning into the majority.

In 2012 Kavanaugh wrote a decision that rejected EPA’s attempt to curb air pollution that crosses state lines.

Kavanaugh wrote the opinion in a 2017 case ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency has no authority to require companies to replace refrigerant chemicals that are also greenhouse gases with more sustainable alternatives.

Kavanaugh supports efforts to further erode federal regulations to limits on contributions in elections, which would give corporate polluters even greater influence in our political system.

Brett Kavanaugh has demonstrated a clear acknowledgement of the role and responsibility of Congress to enact environmental protections as it sees fit. This throws into stark relief the importance of voting because elections have real life consequences. Nothing short of a new Congress that will oppose the harmful policies of Trump and Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler will ensure health, safety and climate stability for future generations. A new Congress would also have the power to carefully craft and enact protective laws that would withstand any attempt by Kavanaugh to destroy our environment and public health from his ill-gotten seat on the bench.

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Food & Water Action is the sister organization to Food & Water Watch. While donations to Food & Water Action are not tax deductible, this gives us the ability to aggressively lobby legislators on issues that are important to you, support political candidates that will make a difference and engage voters to strengthen our democracy.

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